The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power (The Yale-Hoover Series on Stalin, Stalinism, and the Cold War) [Hardcover]

Jan Plamper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 17, 2012 | Series: The Yale-Hoover Series on Stalin, Stalinism, and the Cold War

Between the late 1920s and the early 1950s, one of the most persuasive personality cults of all times saturated Soviet public space with images of Stalin. A torrent of portraits, posters, statues, films, plays, songs, and poems galvanized the Soviet population and inspired leftist activists around the world. In the first book to examine the cultural products and production methods of the Stalin cult, Jan Plamper reconstructs a hidden history linking artists, party patrons, state functionaries, and ultimately Stalin himself in the alchemical project that transformed a pock-marked Georgian into the embodiment of global communism. Departing from interpretations of the Stalin cult as an outgrowth of Russian mysticism or Stalin's psychopathology, Plamper establishes the cult's context within a broader international history of modern personality cults constructed around Napoleon III, Mussolini, Hitler, and Mao. Drawing upon evidence from previously inaccessible Russian archives, Plamper's lavishly illustrated and accessibly written study will appeal to anyone interested in twentieth-century history, visual studies, the politics of representation, dictator biography, socialist realism, and real socialism.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The crafting, production, and canonization of Stalin’s image was no simple endeavor. It involved technologies that gave Stalin’s cult a particularly modern flavor. . . through this alchemy of institutional and individual power did Stalin’s personality cult penetrate the psyche of the Soviet citizenry.”—Sean Guillory, New Books in Russia and Eurasia

(Sean Guillory New Books in Russia and Eurasia )

“An excellent study which greatly advances our understanding of one of the most important cultural artifacts of the twentieth century.”— Graeme Gill, Russian Review

(Graeme Gill Russian Review 20120601)

“A fascinating history of the making and marketing of the Stalinist cult, [characterized by] clarity, sharp analysis, and a deft selection of images and illustrations. . . . A rich, valuable contribution to both modern intellectual history and the history of Russia."—Choice 

(Choice )

About the Author

Jan Plamper is Dilthey Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (January 17, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300169523
• ISBN-13: 978-0300169522
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 1 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #678,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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